The UN refugee agency says Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh face flooding, landslides and disease and must be relocated.

A Rohingya woman cooks a meal at Thayingkhali camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on January 19, 2018. Picture taken January 19, 2018.
(Reuters)

In Bangladesh, Rohingya living in one of the world's largest refugee camps are bracing themselves for the coming monsoon. The rains could trigger landslides, destroy homes, and spread disease.

According to a UN report, more than 100,000 Rohingya refugees huddled in squalid, muddy camps in Bangladesh will be in grave danger from landslides when the mid-year monsoon season begins.

Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since the crackdown that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

The two governments have agreed to a programme to repatriate the refugees. But the start of the returns has been indefinitely delayed, even though Bangladesh last week handed over a list of 8,032 Rohingya to Myanmar for repatriation.